


Don't Look Back

by TiyeTiye



Series: Things That Go Bump In The Night [7]
Category: Vikings - Fandom
Genre: Baiting the trap, Caves, Euryale - Freeform, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Horseback Riding, Just a Little Bit of Peril, Medusa - Freeform, Rock slide, Stheno - Freeform, Turned to Stone, Vikings, battle to the death, chase scene, fighting blind, gorgon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 04:18:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13732992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiyeTiye/pseuds/TiyeTiye
Summary: Fuming at Kalf's theft of her earldom and Ragnar's refusal to help her, Lagertha decides to leave it all behind and strike out on her own with the help of Astrid and her other shield maidens. Finding a small town deep in the mountains with no earl, the townsfolk offer to accept her as their lord, but this unexpected gift comes with a heavy price.





	Don't Look Back

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for @dreamtravelerme as part of my 200 Followers Tumblr celebration. 
> 
> Warnings: The usual for these - violence, blood, gore, gruesome injury, just a little bit of peril.

“ _Fucking Ragnar.”_ ** _BOOM_** _._

Lagertha shifted her weight and braced her shoulder even harder against the thick wooden door behind her. As thick and heavy as it was, it still lurched and shuddered as the creatures tried to get in, and she knew it wouldn’t hold for long - she could hear them scrabbling at it outside, trying to tear their way in, and their screams stabbed into her skull even through the thick wood. 

**_BOOM_** _. “Fucking Ragnar.”_ Lagertha hissed again as the creatures pounded away from outside. This was _all_ ** _his_** _fault._ Him and fucking Kalf, that slimy fucking eel of a man. He’d taken her earldom and then Ragnar, that smug bastard, had promised to help her get it back. She should have known, ought to have known, that Ragnar’s promises meant nothing. Hadn’t she already learned that the hard way? She should have known that Ragnar would smile and flatter and make promises until she forgot herself and her anger, and then he would do precisely what was best for Ragnar. When she’d learned that Ragnar would _not_ be forcing Half to give her back her earldom, that he had instead asked him to bring _her_ forces and join his attack on Paris, that had been the breaking point. The fucking bastard had broken enough promises to her over the course of their marriage and the years afterward, now Lagertha would be _damned_ if she would _ever_ give him the chance to break another. 

_“Fucking bastards.”_ **_BOOM._ **

So Lagertha had taken what few warriors remained loyal to her, and she’d left. She and her shield maidens had slipped out of Hedeby under cover of darkness, and headed south, deep into the mountains. They’d wandered for weeks, staying for a few days here and a few days there in the halls of friendly earls, looking for a place to call home. She thought they might have found it, in the form of a small village in the middle of a steep, thickly-forested valley deep within the mountains that claimed to have no earl, thought that things might finally be beginning to work out for her.

_“May the gods damn them.”_ **_BOOM_**. 

But it _had_ been too good to be true, she’d realized it within moments of riding into the village. It was too new, with no defenses, hardly any structures for their few animals, the wood of the houses still dripping sap, yet these weren’t settlers. No, the men and women Lagertha observed and spoke with moved furtively from building to building, always looking over their shoulder and keeping one eye on the sky, like they expected the wrath of Thor to fall upon them at any moment. It was as though they had been fleeing something, had run as far and as fast as they were able, and had put down new roots only when they thought they might be safe. Yet to Lagertha’s eyes, whatever it was that had driven them to flee obviously still lurked in the backs of their minds and in their nightmares. 

_“Fucking oath breakers, the both of them.”_ **_BOOM_ ** _._

A few days into their staying the little village, Lagertha’s hunch was confirmed by an old woman she’d struck up a friendship with. A few cups of mead was all it took to convince Gunilla to share her story. She’d told Lagertha all about the three creatures who had come out of the south a few months before, and attacked their old town that stood a few days ride farther up the valley. She told Lagertha about how the creatures looked like women but had snakes for hair and gray wings sprouting out of their backs, how meeting their eyes could literally turn someone to stone. Gunilla told her how their old earl and his warriors had tried to fight them while the rest of the town had barricaded themselves in the hall, how their statue corpses had been discovered in the middle of a field the next morning, how the rest of them had grabbed what meager belongings they could carry and fled even as the creatures had reappeared out of the mist to pick them off one by one. Lagertha had held Gunilla as the old woman had sobbed over the memory of her only son cornered by the creatures and turned to stone even as he’d urged his mother to run. Once the old woman had dried her eyes, she’d made the offer to Lagertha. The people of the village had agreed to take her as their earl, would gladly serve her, fight for her, and die for her, if she would rid them of the creatures that had ripped apart their families. 

And now she was here, barricaded inside an abandoned barn on the outskirts of an abandoned town with a few of her shield maidens and one very frightened horse. Lagertha caught Astrid’s eye beside her and let slip a nervous little laugh. If they died today, what _stories_ they would have to tell in Valhalla.

The door behind her leapt again as the creatures threw themselves at it, trying to hammer their way inside. One resounding blow threw her and her shield maidens completely clear of the door, and as she scrambled back to brace it, Lagertha did her best to ignore the long, wicked crack in it surface. The creatures were almost in. She could be terrified later, assuming she survived the day - right now her plan just had to work. 

“Dagmar!” she bellowed across the barn at the warrior holding the reins of her horse. “How long?! Are they ready?!” 

The dark-haired woman pulled the jittery horse to the other end of the barn to peek out through the gaps in the walls. 

“Just a little longer!” she called back. “The sun has almost set, but I don’t see the signal!”

“We don’t _have_ a little longer!” Lagertha shouted as the creatures outside screamed again and another blow to the door threw them forwards and shook more dust down from the rafters. “They will have to be ready by the time I get there! Light the torch!” 

Dagmar nodded, looping the horse’s reins around a post and fumbling at her belt pouch to pull out her flints. Soon, the oil-soaked torch she had prepared was burning brightly in the dimming light inside the barn, a single red eye in the gray twilight. 

“Are you ready?” Astrid asked from beside her, straining to hold the door in place. 

Lagertha turned to look at her, pitching her voice so that only her lover could hear. “No…. I’m not. But I must do it anyway.” 

Her face gone pale and her eyes round with suppressed fear, Astrid still found a way to give Lagertha one of her sweet smiles. “Ride like the wind then. Faster than the Valkyries.” 

“That is the plan. Don’t die while I’m gone.” 

Astrid laughed, a quick peal of mirth in the midst of their peril, and leaned over to quickly kiss her. “That is the plan. That is always the plan.” 

Lagertha smiled at her. “I will find you once we are finished. One way or another.” 

Astrid nodded. “One way or another. Go now!” 

The last was shouted as a final blow shook the barn around them and one of the creatures succeeded in forcing a clawed arm through the crack in the door. 

“MOVE!” Lagertha shouted at her warriors over the sound of the creatures’ renewed screams, and her shield maidens quickly moved into their final places. Lagertha sprinted for Dagmar and her horse, while her remaining shield maidens braced the door behind her. Mounting up, Lagertha seized the torch and cast one last look at the frightened women ready and waiting in their positions around the barn. Waiting for her orders. Waiting for her to save them. 

“Remember, whatever happens, do not look them in the eye! Keep your shields up and may the gods be with you,” she said, and raised the torch above her head. “On my signal!” 

Letting the torch drop, Lagertha dug her booted heels into her horse’s flanks just as the splintering doors behind her finally fell apart. Across the barn, her warriors immediately opened the second door as Lagertha’s horse surged forward towards them. She hoped that Astrid and Dagmar and the others had been able to dive behind cover before the creatures swarmed in, hoped that no one had fallen victim to their fatal eyes, but she couldn’t risk looking back. 

Instead, Lagertha raised the torch over her head and screamed out her defiance as her horse plunged through the door and out into the growing night. Waving it over her head, she galloped down the path and the cries echoing behind her told her that the creatures had indeed followed. The path was good, and the moon gave enough light to see by, so it was only a few moments until Lagertha’s horse carried her out of town and into the deeper darkness of theforest that surrounded it. She kept waving the torch above her head though, hoping that her warriors would see her, hoping that they would be ready, hoping that all of this wouldn’t have been for nothing, hoping that she wasn’t about to die. 

_There_. There is was. And answering ember from farther up the path, a tiny torch from somewhere back in the trees, and soon the shrieks of the creatures behind her began to change in tone. Their delighted cries that had reminded her of wolves scenting prey had shifted to something angrier, something pained, and Lagertha grinned in delight as her horse continued to thunder up the dark path. It was working. She knew that behind her, the creatures would be sprouting full of arrows as they flew through the trees past her archers. They’d been given strict orders that they were to fire one shot only, to flee as soon as the arrow left their bow, lest the creatures spot them and petrify them where they stood. It wasn’t good odds, but it would be enough just to weaken them, to slow them down just a little, and judging by the angry cries coming from behind her, it was working. As her horse rounded a bend, Lagertha heard a high, piercing scream that abruptly cut off in a deep _thud,_ followed by the triumphant shouts of her shield maidens, and grinned wickedly.

_One down._

Her horse was laboring now, the hunting cries of the remaining two creatures drawing closer and sending shivers down her spine, but Lagertha was _almost there_. Bending low, she urged the animal forward towards a new point of light shining ahead on the path - another one of her warriors lighting the way. Lagertha shot out of the trees and guided her horse straight toward a blonde shield maiden named Kari, who stood waving a torch next to the mouth of one of the many caves that dotted the valley. 

“Go! Go now!” Lagertha screamed, and Kari dropped her torch and dashed away. As Lagertha galloped closer to the gaping mouth of the rock face, feeling like the claws of the creatures might reach out and snatch her at any moment, she threw her torch out ahead of her like a spear - the signal to her warriors to begin the next part of the plan. As she galloped past the tiny hopeful light, a groaning, rumbling, crashing sound arose from above, getting louder and louder over the shrieks of the creatures. An angry roar that was abruptly cut off told Lagertha that at least one of them was caught in the rock slide that her shield maidens had unleashed as the flood of boulders crashing to the ground sealed the mouth of the cave behind her. 

_Two down._

Lagertha pulled up her horse and quickly dismounted, trying to slow the pounding fear in her heart as she drew her sword and moved into what she hoped was the center of the cavern, straining to hear any sign that she might not be alone. 

Nothing. Just the faint sound of dripping water from somewhere deeper in the cave and a few echoing rumbles as the stones sealing the cave mouth shifted to find their final places. Had the rock slide somehow caught both of them?

The blow came out of nowhere and sent her hurtling across the chamber to slam into the wall. Gasping for breath as she struggled to her feet, her eyes straining for any hint of light, Lagertha said a quick prayer of thanks to the gods that she’d been able to hang on to her sword. The creature shrieked from somewhere in the blackness, and Lagertha blindly swung at it as her horse gave a panicked cry and took off deeper into the cave. Her only warning before the next blow fell was a quiet hiss, and then a line of fire raked its way across her belly. Lagertha moved just enough that the next blow, most likely meant for her head, struck her shoulder instead, and she screamed as she felt something crack and her sword arm go numb, her blade falling from useless, twitching fingers. 

Stomping down her agony, Lagertha drew her knife and threw herself forward, rolling along the dirt floor of the cave. Scrambling on her hands and knees, she brushed against something soft and feathery, the creature’s wing, and screamed as she forced her bad arm to reach up and lock around it. The creature kicked back at her, clawed feet drawing more burning lines across her armor-covered belly, but Lagertha held firm. She’d come much too far to give up now and would not allow this creature to become someone else’s undoing. Screaming a battle cry, she lashed out with her knife, stabbing blindly above her at anything she could hit - it’s back, it’s legs, it’s belly - _anything_. The creature’s angry, pained shrieks echoed throughout the cave, and Lagertha’s fingers were soon coated with the creature’s cold, sticky blood. As the two of them grappled, Lagertha still on her knees and her bad arm locked around the creature’s wings and legs, she brought her knife lower, stabbing and slashing at where the large veins and tendons would be in a man.

She got lucky. Lagertha’s knife severed something in its legs and the creature dropped like a stone. It landed on its front, howling in pain, and Lagertha quickly released her hold and hauled herself up its back. Tangling her numb hand into its snake hair and winding the scaly coils around her wrist, Lagertha yanked its head back and slashed her knife across its throat with a roar. 

The creature jerked as the deluge of its cold blood flooded out over Lagertha’s fingers, then went still and silent. 

Gasping for breath and wincing in agony, Lagertha freed her hand from the creature’s scaly hair, rolled off of its corpse, and closed her eyes. All of her injuries had flooded back into her awareness as soon as the creature went still, and she was no longer as young as she’d once been. She just needed a minute.

"Three down," she whispered to herself as the oblivion dragged her under. 

—————————————————————————————————————————

Lagertha had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, and clawing her way back to awareness had been like trying to break up through the ice of a frozen lake. There was still no hint of light when she opened her eyes, so she recovered her knife, and very carefully, her sword, by carefully feeling around the dirt floor until she felt the touch of cold steel. The creature’s corpse made no signs of life as Lagertha moved around the cavern, but before she shuffled away she made sure to cut its head off just the same. 

It took her longer than she thought it would to make her way out of the cave. When she’d scouted it earlier with Astrid, the walk to the small, hidden opening on the other side of the cave system had taken them less than an hour, but to Lagertha it felt like this journey took her an age. She’d memorized the turns of the route with Astrid when they’d walked it by torchlight, and now trailed her hand along the cave wall and turned when she felt an opening, whimpering as each step sent new lines of fire from the cuts in her belly straight up her spine. 

Finally, she saw it. A faint gray light ahead. And there beside it, a torch, held by a dark-haired woman, it’s flame moving back and forth as its bearer paced in front of the tiny cave mouth. 

“He-Hello?” Lagertha called down the tunnel. 

The torch bearer turned and Lagertha saw that it was Astrid. The torchlight immediately began to grow brighter as Astrid sprinted down the tunnel towards her, calling back over her shoulder for more help. 

Lagertha smiled at her as she approached, but made herself stay upright, kept her posture ramrod straight, until she felt Astrid’s arm slip around her. Sinking against her with a pained sob, only then did Lagertha allow herself to be helped along, to lean some of her weight against her love. 

“There you are! I was so worried!” 

Lagertha choked out a laugh. “Why? I told you I would find you, one way or another.” 

Astrid gave a small laugh at that, yet even though she looked relieved to see her, her eyes were still wary, peering behind them into the gloom of the cave as she turned them back towards the cave mouth and the approaching help. 

“Is it done though?” she asked. “Are we safe?”

“Yes,” Lagertha gasped out and she shuffled along beside her towards the cave mouth. “It’s done.” 


End file.
